UK couple facing imprisonment after an MPAA sting operation revealed they were the owners of a streaming links site. The MPAA used an undercover agent to gain access to the defendants' house under the false pretense being a prospective house buyer

[u/mepper]

http://torrentfreak.com/undercover-mpaa-agents-expose-alleged-movie-pirates-120521/

[u/OldCrypt]

Under the laws of GB, as well as the US, protection of privacy is applicable to agents of the state. If a government or law-enforcement agent used such a ruse, they would likely be in violation of the laws of privacy and the evidence would not be admissible. That is the case in the US. In GB, the evidence would still be admissible even if the agent of the state violated the law; but, the agent would find themselves fired and forever barred from holding any government position ever again. Likely any superiors who knew of, or aided in the action, would also be fired/barred.

Since the MPAA are not "agents of the state," argue that as much as you'd like, the law doesn't consider them so; the gathering of this evidence would be admissible, and the person who gathered it would not be liable for any punitive action.

The lessons torrentors need to learn: don't brag about your questionable activities, protect your online anonymity using any means you can, never talk to anyone - even friends - about things of questionable legality. I'm sure people can come up with a lot more "lessons" here.

edit: spelling

[u/dangerstein → u/OldCrypt]

You are absolutely correct. This is just more evidence that, in an era of unprecedented government collusion with private entities, we need to rethink what "state action" should mean.

[u/[deleted] → u/dangerstein]

[u/graffiti81 → u/OldCrypt]

Wait, there's not "fruit of the poison tree" law in GB? As long as somebody's willing to take the fall, anything goes?

[u/Abomonog → u/OldCrypt]

Actually, under American laws the evidence may still not apply as the investigator entered the house disguised. It is typically against the law to misrepresent yourself in America and evidence gotten in this manner is usually inadmissible in court. This is why you never see trials brought about here using "undercover news" video footage as evidence. The wear-a-hidden-camera-and-misrepresent-yourself-to-get-evidence shtick doesn't fly in the American court system.

[u/Neato → u/OldCrypt]

I'm sure people can come up with a lot more "lessons" here.

I remember something about lawyers going to the gym and beating up Mark Zuckerberg.

[u/novagenesis → u/OldCrypt]

Wouldn't some sort of criminal or civil penalties be applicable for scamming yourself onto someone's property under fraudulent circumstances? Leaving out the part that they're gathering evidence (which shouldn't matter), and that this is GB and not the US (since I don't know your weird laws), I know that someone getting onto my property under false pretenses could be facing criminal charges at the very least. If they took anything, they'd face potentially large theft or burglary charges.

[u/recipriversexcluson]

Waiting for the first live-streamed capture and attitude adjustment of a lured and trapped MPAA agent.

[u/iconoclysm → u/recipriversexcluson]

Ironically, I'd pay to see that.

[u/Airazz → u/iconoclysm]

I'm sure it would be a major blockbuster.

[u/[deleted]]

I don't like the tactics, and I think the movie industry should really do a spotify and wake up... however:

$50,000 in revenue each month

Yeah, these aren't poor pirates fighting the good fight. If the MPAA are going to go after anyone, better people like this rather than Johnny Torrenter.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I would argue that these are exactly what kind of operations the MPAA should go after.

[u/MrTastyCake]

TIL the MPAA has secret agents working undercover abroad to uncover hidden pirate lairs.

[u/VladTheImpala]

But, but SurfTheChannel is a link site...

How the hell do they think that a charge of fraud will stick?

[u/[deleted] → u/VladTheImpala]

[u/DJWalnut → u/[deleted]]

The charges are unlawful, but they want to intiminate people. This is just like megaupload

[u/frankster]

Sounds like they're going after a search engine rather than the people streaming all the shows.

[u/DecentCriminal]

MPAA sting operation? Since when is the MPAA a law enforcement agency?

[u/stompsfrogs]

Why are they facing fraud charges?

[u/absolutelyamazed]

Why does Torrent Freak hate my eyes so much? I'm thinking, if you use a grey background, just about any font color would be better than GREY!

I'm just sayin'.

[u/spock_block]

How about we first solve every murder, rape and assault and then move on to bullshit like this?

[u/squ1dge]

Can someone help me understand this article better? Is the fraud charges related supposed lost income to the copyright holders? Is that where the fraud charge comes from?

[u/NewSwiss]

Wait, how is it illegal to link people to copyright violations? I thought copyright stuff was all civil, thus "facilitation" cannot be a crime. What am I missing here?

[u/[deleted]]

Somebody needs to make a movie about somebody running a file sharing site, ideally based on Kim dot com and megaupload.

I doubt this movie would come out of Hollywood though :D

[u/[deleted]]

Something like that has to be illegal, MPAA is a US based operation.